Summary
We implement the specific student-oriented open learning teaching method in full-time and part-time programmes at both Bachelor's and Master's level. This model is characterised by a high degree of flexibility, particularly for students, in terms of what and how they want to learn and the competence profile they build up. To guarantee this flexibility, the model does not have standard courses, subjects, schedules or a different assessment model. This makes it possible to interweave virtually any domain with ICT and to incorporate new developments into the curriculum on an impromptu basis. This page provides a brief description of the open learning teaching method.
The open programme uses assignments (challenges) from partners in society as a vehicle for learning. Fontys ICT has a large number of partner companies known as partners in education & innovation. This guarantees a large number of varied challenges. From semester 6 onwards, students can start a start-up within the programme, which also allows them to set their own start-up challenges.
In principle, students choose their own challenges, guided by their own development questions and ambitions. This choice is supervised by coaches, but the partner companies also play a role in the choice. In order to make the best possible choice, there is a market at the beginning of the semester where students can talk to companies that have challenges they find interesting. Companies therefore pitch the challenges to students.
These challenges are described at graduation level and are problems for which the client does not yet have a direct solution. This gives students as much room as possible to explore and investigate without being steered towards a predetermined solution.
After the selection process, groups are formed around the challenges. The maximum group size is five. All years are mixed, so students from semester 2 can be in a group with students from semesters 6 and 7. The groups are almost always multidisciplinary. (In the context of the digital transformer) even transdisciplinary.
In a semester, the average student works on a group challenge and a personal pet project. The personal projects are usually individual, while the challenges are always group work. The student collects evidence that forms a portfolio.
Each student has two coaches for guidance. However, anyone from the team can be called upon for guidance. The coaches also have expert roles that students can turn to with more specific issues. From a logistical point of view, everyone in a challenge group has the same first and second coach. Regular group and individual meetings are held with these coaches. The coaches work among the students and are therefore also available for ad hoc matters. The groups work according to Scrum, with weekly stand-ups and a sprint demo every three weeks in which the stakeholder (company) is also involved. While working on the challenges and the personal project, the student collects portfolio material. For this purpose, a number of sprint demo moments were also organised where the students share their challenge progress with other students and all stakeholders. The same applies to the personal projects.
When working on challenges and personal projects, the issue is first broken down into a work breakdown that leads to a number of tasks (assignments) that grow during the process. Each student works on a number of group assignments as well as individual assignments. The indicators from the competency framework are linked to these assignments in a Rubric. These artefacts are assessed by the coaches on the rubrics. By doing this consistently, the student builds up a personal profile (for the digital transformer, this will be built on the chest of drawers model).
This profile always reflects reality because it is based on challenges from society. The profiles created are made transparent by means of competence profiling (see also the appendix on competence profiling). This gives coaches and students insight into progress at any time.
The final profile is included in an appendix to the diploma.
Given the open learning model, it is not practical to set up teaching cycles. After all, every student may have different development questions. Nevertheless, there is a wide range of workshops available on demand, offered by coaches, stakeholders and students. These workshops are not compulsory; students can choose what they need.
The pool of workshops is continuously updated and published. Workshops that are no longer of interest are removed. New workshops are created based on student demand (on-demand workshops). They all have the advantage of being quickly applicable.
Workshops come in a number of flavours: Open learning: These workshops help students with the way of working within open learning. E.g. How do personal courses work, how do you find the right KPIs for your assignments, internship preparation.
Personal development: These workshops focus on the professional performance of the student. E.g. Scrum, Documentation. Feedback, Creative thinking, Myer Briggs, international awareness, reflection and Research Content: This focuses on subject-specific content (usually ICT), such as Docker, Github, various AI workshops, creative coding, interface design, etc.
On demand: On request or at the suggestion of students. Students also give workshops on topics they have developed that are of interest to fellow students and lecturers.
Students can also request workshops, which will then be provided.
There are weekly coaching sessions with the students. These are both group discussions and personal discussions. Feedpulse is used to monitor the feedback cycle effectively. This is used for personal and group feedback. In addition, Feedpulse can also be allocated for peer feedback if the coach deems it necessary.
If necessary, a student will also be assigned a third coach. This coach usually comes from the Student+ programme and focuses more on students with “issues” such as planning, autism, dyslexia, etc. Because the students and staff share the same physical space (no separate rooms), the threshold for making contact is very low.
In addition, the stakeholders also play a role. They are expected to be present at the demo moments and to provide the groups with insights from the client's perspective.
Assessment is based on portfolio formation. When students work on a challenge, this results in artefacts of their work, such as research, pieces of realisation, designs, etc. Since this is a different set of work for each student, it can be difficult to organise in a standard LMS. To accommodate this, all students are given an environment for their personal portfolio that they can set up according to their own development needs. They can store all their work here. When they add an item, they describe the how, what and why of the burden of proof. They also link quality criteria to the evidence. As described earlier, in addition to these criteria, the rubric also contains the steps from the HBO-i framework that they think they can prove. In this way, they indicate how the evidence contributes to the growth of their competence profile.
Submissions can be made continuously and iteratively, until students are satisfied with the result. This provides material for discussion at all stages. The assessing is therefore longitudinal, also known as Assessment as Learning. If the rubric is assessed consistently, the student (and the coach) can see the progress at any time (see also the appendix on competence profiling).
In addition to the feedback and assessment in the portfolio, Feedpulse is allocated, both individually and in groups, to further secure and record the process.
Work is done in blocks of 30 EC (semester). The student obtains the 30 EC if sufficient growth is demonstrated. This is derived from the minimum set of competence steps that must be taken before graduation.
An important aspect of open learning is that the students form a community. This has a lot of added value, particularly because the different semesters are mixed and this is also the case in the challenge groups. Lower years learn from higher years in a fairly natural way. Knowledge sharing is encouraged and seen as professional behaviour. The educational environment is explicitly designed to stimulate the community. Open spaces, no classrooms, lots of support resources, but also places to relax and do something different.
To promote knowledge sharing, everyone (students and coaches) has a profile. This shows what everyone's expertise is, but also where their passions lie and often things that are less obvious, such as being a runner or musician.
To further strengthen the community, weekly community lunches are organised (together with students). Students also organise events such as Christmas dinners, gaming evenings, etc.